RE: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86: Spotted

RE: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86: Spotted

Author
Discussion

dinkel

27,000 posts

259 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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Lexus 2 litre in. Beast!

sr.guiri

482 posts

90 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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Al U said:
POA?! - I'm thinking like £3-4k max...
In the 59 months you have been on Pistonheads, and after nearly 1500 posts, you still know jack biggrin

s m

23,306 posts

204 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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406dogvan said:
Some moons ago, over on the Evo Forum, someone picked-up a UK Corolla GT (pretty much what this is but without the smell of fags and miso) and proceeded to ruin it rather badly.

He thought it was the Initial D Drift Missile and so he threw away the interior, threw in a load of "because racecar" and took it to a track where it was - erm - not that fast and not that much fun (amusingly, he had a Retro car magazine along to document his disappointment)
You mean Mick I think although there were about 4 on there at one stage

pete.g

1,527 posts

207 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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Coincidentally, I saw one yesterday - fitted with the obligatory pair of Cibies, I don't think you are allowed to drive one in Ireland, north or south without the spotlights fitted!


dapprman

2,348 posts

268 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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Zinyzang said:
To me that looks like a 85 not a 86
Engine looks fine - you sure you're not just getting confused with the fact that Itsuki accidentally buys an AE85 in Initial-D? - engine was available in both the Trueno and Levin (we only got the latter in the UK as the Corolla GTi).

P-Jay

10,606 posts

192 months

Wednesday 18th April 2018
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chappardababbar said:
Isn't this comparable to an E30 M3 / Integrale / 190E 2.3 in terms of driving experience / handling / provenance?
Nah, it’s got about half the power of most of them and I don’t believe it was ever conceived as anything more than a ‘fun little runaround’ by Toyota back in the day.

IMHO it’s a good car with a GREAT cult following that’s to the Japanese drift scene where they’ll held in the same sort of esteem as we give Mk1 Escorts in the UK. It’s no coincidence that when Toyota wanted to build a small, affordable coupe with a onus on fun handling over ‘on paper’ outright power and grip it was called a GT86.

e30m3Mark

16,214 posts

174 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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P-Jay said:
Nah, it’s got about half the power of most of them and I don’t believe it was ever conceived as anything more than a ‘fun little runaround’ by Toyota back in the day.
This is about the best review I've seen about the AE86.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjKN0Ummc6M

Edited by e30m3Mark on Thursday 19th April 10:47

s m

23,306 posts

204 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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e30m3Mark said:
P-Jay said:
Nah, it’s got about half the power of most of them and I don’t believe it was ever conceived as anything more than a ‘fun little runaround’ by Toyota back in the day.
This is about the best review I've seen about the AE86.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjKN0Ummc6M

Edited by e30m3Mark on Thursday 19th April 10:47
Yeah, I linked that one as well Mark

It's the Spanish guy - really nicely filmed isn't it

There's some other good films on that channel

Have you seen the E30 one?

e30m3Mark

16,214 posts

174 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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s m said:
e30m3Mark said:
P-Jay said:
Nah, it’s got about half the power of most of them and I don’t believe it was ever conceived as anything more than a ‘fun little runaround’ by Toyota back in the day.
This is about the best review I've seen about the AE86.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjKN0Ummc6M

Edited by e30m3Mark on Thursday 19th April 10:47
Yeah, I linked that one as well Mark

It's the Spanish guy - really nicely filmed isn't it

There's some other good films on that channel

Have you seen the E30 one?
I have, yes. I think I watched them all after seeing you post a link some time ago?

I think labelling it a 'fun runaround' is being a bit unfair and it didn't need big power as it was so light. Some models had 16v twin-cams, nigh on 130 brake, an LSD and only weighed 950 kgs. Sounds like an attractive and fun combination to me.

s m

23,306 posts

204 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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It has been accused of being slow but it offers same performance as a current VW UP GTi ......which many say is fast enough to be fun

blearyeyedboy

6,344 posts

180 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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I can see why an AE86 is prized. What I don't get is why people who do engine transplants, suspension mods and update the brakes don't just start off with an AE85. As far as I can see, all the important different bits between the two are being replaced by parts you're going to upgrade to anyway.

Have I missed the point?

J4CKO

41,759 posts

201 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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Anyone else think a "Levin" sounds more like a nocturnal, tree dwelling South American Mammal ?

s m

23,306 posts

204 months

Thursday 19th April 2018
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Sort of car that would be interesting to see given the "Harry's Garage" treatment.

Bet I see one this weekend....the sun brings them out and I saw a few nice old 80s cars today/this evening

e30m3Mark

16,214 posts

174 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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I was hoping the sun would be out on Sunday as it's the Federation of British vehicle clubs 'Drive it Day'.

dufunk

182 posts

124 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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Thumbs down on the F20C vtec comes on way to late for going sideways and isn't great for balance. Its all about the Beams swap you have a spread of power and torque and it starts to pull hard from 4k up more character also as it has a carby noise similar to the 4AGE 20v which is hard to beat. Not worth going over to the dark side!

InitialDave

11,988 posts

120 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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I really want one, but I want one that's pretty much standard, and unfortunately it seems most of the ones that crop up have been messed about a lot.


Levin

2,035 posts

125 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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J4CKO said:
Anyone else think a "Levin" sounds more like a nocturnal, tree dwelling South American Mammal ?
Tell me more biggrin

Krikkit

26,607 posts

182 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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blearyeyedboy said:
I can see why an AE86 is prized. What I don't get is why people who do engine transplants, suspension mods and update the brakes don't just start off with an AE85. As far as I can see, all the important different bits between the two are being replaced by parts you're going to upgrade to anyway.

Have I missed the point?
Nope, I agree.

I suspect it's the itchy feet syndrome - buy an 86, find it's not quite quick enough, do the usual cams/ITBs etc, suspension, then more power again so engine swap.

Before you know it everyone just skips to the end, when they could start with a different car.

Blayney

2,948 posts

187 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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Levin said:
J4CKO said:
Anyone else think a "Levin" sounds more like a nocturnal, tree dwelling South American Mammal ?
Tell me more biggrin
:haha:

For reference I think Levin is lightning in old English, trueno is thunder in Spanish.

J4CKO

41,759 posts

201 months

Friday 20th April 2018
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Levin said:
J4CKO said:
Anyone else think a "Levin" sounds more like a nocturnal, tree dwelling South American Mammal ?
Tell me more biggrin
Do you have massive eyes, roll in your own piss to attract females and spend 99.6 percent of your life in the tree canopy ? biggrin